Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12 strengthened by two new appointments

by Sophie Luther on 9 Jun 2011 Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12, the world’s premier offshore sailing event, begins in Alicante, Spain on 29th October.

The Volvo Ocean Race has been boosted by two senior appointments to lead them into the next event, Jon Bramley joining as Communications Director and Olivier Brémont as Commercial Director.

The restructuring of the two departments has been made to enhance and strengthen these key areas prior to the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12.

Bramley brings long and varied experience in global sports and general news including 11 years in senior news positions at Thomson Reuters, the world’s largest international multi-media agency.

He was the global sports news editor and deputy sports editor for Thomson Reuters for the last five years, responsible for running day-to-day sports news coverage. In 2009 he headed the agency’s general, financial and political news output from the UK and Ireland.

He has also worked at the last five Olympics Games and was Reuters’ desk head during the last four Games.

Prior to this, he was the Assistant Sports Editor for the Sunday Mirror.

Bramley’s expertise in managing media relationships and news dissemination will play a crucial role in the development of the event’s communication strategy.

'The Volvo Ocean Race is a fantastic sporting event and the challenge is to bring the full experience to a much wider audience. This is professionally my biggest career challenge – and I’ve had quite a few!' he said. 'We have a great communications team in the Alicante Race Headquarters and excellent technical resources. I am very excited about bringing them to their full potential.'

Brémont also has a strong track record of over 15 years experience in the sports industry gained with rights-holders, agencies and brands.

Prior to joining Volvo Ocean Race, he was VP Business Development & Strategy at the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association), the governing body of women’s professional tennis.

At WTA, he was responsible for leading sponsorship sales, business development and strategy for the WTA Tour, with an emphasis on Europe, Asia Pacific and emerging markets.

He developed and implemented a new commercial programme, which resulted in the signing of five new sponsors in 2010 and 2011, the first significant new WTA backers in six years.

Previously, he was VP Business Development at Infront Sports & Media, where he worked on a number of projects including the establishment of Infront China's sales and marketing business, the WTA's market entry strategy for China, and on a number of high profile media and marketing rights and corporate acquisitions in football, winter sports and motor sports.

Prior to working at Infront, he was an Account Director at UEFA, European football’s governing body, and worked for five years at adidas International in sports marketing.

'The Volvo Ocean Race is one of the premier sporting events in the world and offers so many excellent commercial opportunities across a wide range of areas including technology, lifestyle and the environment as well as, of course, sports. It’s a very exciting challenge for me and I am really looking forward to working with CEO Knut Frostad and the rest of the Race’s team to maximise our potential,' he said.
Volvo Ocean Race website